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Manhunt Underway After Two Shooting Attacks In West Bank, Settlers Throw Stones at Palestinians
 [Jpost] A manhunt is underway in the West Bank for a Paleostinian who killed an IDF soldier and critically injured two other Israelis in two attacks outside the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Sunday morning. Additional troops, including special forces and officers from the Shin Bet and Israel police, were deployed to search for the attacker who fled in the direction of the Paleostinian village of Burqin. Authorities also briefly ordered the gate to the nearby Barkan industrial zone to be closed as well nearby Israeli communities to shut their entrances. The IDF also sealed off the entrances and exits to three local Paleostinian villages, Jamma’in, Kifl Haris and Deir Istiya near Nablus, in an effort to find the perpetrator. According to IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis, at around 9:45 a.m., a Paleostinian terrorist stabbed 19 year-old Sgt. Gal Keidan at the Ariel junction and stole his weapon and shot him before he shot toward civilians at the junction, hitting three cars passing through. An Israeli civilian, 47 year-old Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger from the settlement of Eli was critically injured after he was struck by bullets while driving through the junction. Ettinger, has 12 children and heads Oz and Emunah Yeshiva in south Tel Aviv. Keidan, from Beersheba was a combat soldier in the Artillery Corps’ 334th "Fire" brigade and who was posthumously promoted to the rank of St.-Sargent. The youngest of three siblings born to parents who immigrated to Israel in the 1970s from the former Soviet Union, he will be buried Monday at 11 AM in the military cemetery in Beersheba. According to the military, after carrying out the attack in Ariel the attacker stole a car from a civilian who fled the attack and escaped the scene. The terrorist then drove toward the Gitai Avishar junction, where he carried out a drive-by shooting injuring another soldier who was guarding a hitchhiking station. The injured were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital for medical treatment, with one at death's door with a head injury and the other in a very serious condition with a stomach injury. "I happened to be passing by the Ariel junction with the car I use to teach driving lessons, when I happened upon the large amount commotion at the Ariel junction," MDA EMT Hananel Hess said. "I saw soldiers running and heard gunshots. I understood that this was out of the ordinary and I requested that MDA teams respond. Once the shooting stopped, I exited my vehicle and I saw an approximately 20-year-old patient lying unconscious on the ground with gunshot wounds to his upper body. We assessed him and found him to be at death's door." According to Hebrew media reports, while there were four soldiers on duty at the Ariel Junction when the attacks began, none of them -including the soldier who had been standing next to Kaidan- opened fire on the assailant. The commander of the force, who was stationed nearby with two other soldiers, opened fire on the Paleostinian and reportedly injured him in the shoulder. The Gitai Avishar junction on Highway 5 is a central intersection of the highway which links Ariel to central Israel, with hundreds of Paleostinian workers traveling through it daily. Both Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... (PIJ) terror groups welcomed the attacks, but did not claim responsibility. The attack in Ariel was a "response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation, and to the events in Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque," Hamas said in a statement, adding that "all the acts of oppression and attempts to undermine the resistance will not succeed in defeating the will of our people or preventing them from following the path of jihad." PIJ said that the attack "was carried out in order to move the compass and bring the struggle to its natural location.We welcome the attack and salute the rebel heroes in the West Bank." Israelis in West Bank said to throw stones at Palestinians after terror attack [IsraelTimes] After an IDF soldier was killed Sunday morning in a West Bank attack, and two other Israelis were critically hurt, Israelis in several West Bank locations threw stones at Paleostinian vehicles and homes, causing damage and some injuries, the Yesh Din rights group said later in the day. In the hours after the fatal attack, there were several incidents of Israelis attacking Paleostinians in the northern West Bank, Yesh Din said in a statement. "Acts of vengeance following the attack this morning may lead to the loss of additional lives, and harm innocent people whose only ’crime’ is that they are Paleostinians," the statement said. Three workers in the Paleostinian electric company required treatment for their injuries after their car was hit by rocks near the Shavei Shomoron settlement. They were taken to a hospital in Nablus, the statement said. On Route 55, in the northeastern West Bank, Israelis threw rocks at cars in the entrance to the Paleostinian village of Jinsafut, breaking the windshields of some of the vehicles. Israelis threw rocks at homes in the towns of Hawara and Asira al-Qibliya, the rights group said. Rocks were also thrown at Paleostinians near the village of Jit. Posted by: trailing wife 2019-03-18 |
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